I can't see how this can be a XOOPS problem but I am posting here to see if it has happened to anyone else.

I've been running a XOOPS setup since last August.
I think it is a *nix host,

using 2.0.7.3
about a dozen modules 150 users, 10 groups.

Sunday night, all OK. I uploaded, read a few bulletins, posted a news item. All good.

Monday morning, I get a call to say that one of my users cannot log in.
I check and his account is not there.

in fact a lot of people who recently registered are no longer there.

Search...

Woah, the latest post in the NewwBB is now January this year. I was just reading the posts the day before and there was a lively discussion going on in several areas. All gone!

Other modules, wf-downloads. All recent uploads are not there. In fact - just last Friday I had updated a file. I deleted an old version of something, uploaded the new one.

I had a mail from someone telling me thanks for (ahem) finally getting the new version up, it worked well. I say this because it verifies that i had actually succeeded with the upload...
BUT
now the new one is not only gone but the old one is back up there!!

This is across the board in all the modules except one. The XOOPS gallery i use as image gallery still has pictures uploaded about a month ago. All the other modules (about 9 or 10) have regressed to january...

I am guessing that a SQL restore has been done, i can't think of anything else. of course i am asking my hosting company but...

does any one have any ideas??

Not until you have talked with your hosting company. It is *very* clear to me that it must be a backup on both database and files that has been applied. Talk to them.

Thanks. I will, sorry. I reallllly need to study.

OK.

My hosting company had a failure on the MySQL server hard disk.
Their backup system also had a problem which meant that they were only able to restore data up until last January.

Thankfully, the technicians were able to retrieve all the data from the failed disk and now all is back to normal.

I realise this is not a XOOPS problem but I do feel that for beginners, this kind of event can be unsettling so it might be good to keep this here as a reference.

Thanks again for your support.